Product FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions that prospective customers or customers have been frequently asking to date have been gathered on this page. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't get in touch if you need any more information. Do not hesitate to use the "Ask a question" form below!
The Extended version adds pending orders that are also hidden to your broker. It therefore allows delayed trade placements based on limit or stop prices.
Primarily, Stop orders exist to the broker's advantage, while Limit orders exist to the trader's advantage. Both types of orders may be part of an intelligent system though - as long as those order types are fully understood by the trader and that the risk is properly managed - in any case keeping them "private" i.e. known by the trader will tip the scales in the trader's favour.
With the Extended version, the order price line can become the price of a pending order (Sell Limit, Sell Top, Buy Limit, Buy Stop).
Primarily, Stop orders exist to the broker's advantage, while Limit orders exist to the trader's advantage. Both types of orders may be part of an intelligent system though - as long as those order types are fully understood by the trader and that the risk is properly managed - in any case keeping them "private" i.e. known by the trader will tip the scales in the trader's favour.
With the Extended version, the order price line can become the price of a pending order (Sell Limit, Sell Top, Buy Limit, Buy Stop).
The reasons why the product was split into two versions (Standard, Extended) is primarily that for many traders the pending orders are never introduced in their systems. Silent Officer allows to accelerate the setup of a trade by calculating the ideal lot size instantly, so those traders wouldn't like to see additional script parameters.
Both have similar functionalities in terms of soft (hidden) risk and profit limits, trailing-stop, and profit recording.
However, Silent Tracker executes on a trade-by-trade basis. This for example means that the amounts chosen for the maximum loss applies on each trade; in other words, in Silent Tracker this is a hidden stop on one order.
Silent Manager is designed to apply the functionalities on a group of trades. This for example means that the amount chosen for the maximum loss applies on the total of unrealised profit of all orders in scope; if the scope is set to a symbol, then the expert will close all orders associated to the symbol when the total of their unrealised profits has reached the maximum loss.
Silent Manager applies a profit management policy which is well suited for those traders who are after securing a profit while they are running a system which has opened a variety of trades.
Silent Manager can run on all opened trades, or all trades associated to one symbol, or all trades that have been opened with one magic number.
To give an actual scenario, say that you have an expert opening many trades on one symbol, EURJPY. You can open a chart and load Silent Manager, setting the scope to ALL_TRADES_FOR_SYMBOL and EURJPY. On this basis, the expert will start monitoring the total of profit & loss for the whole orders opened on EURJPY. This will secure your profit on the whole set of trades.
However, Silent Tracker executes on a trade-by-trade basis. This for example means that the amounts chosen for the maximum loss applies on each trade; in other words, in Silent Tracker this is a hidden stop on one order.
Silent Manager is designed to apply the functionalities on a group of trades. This for example means that the amount chosen for the maximum loss applies on the total of unrealised profit of all orders in scope; if the scope is set to a symbol, then the expert will close all orders associated to the symbol when the total of their unrealised profits has reached the maximum loss.
Silent Manager applies a profit management policy which is well suited for those traders who are after securing a profit while they are running a system which has opened a variety of trades.
Silent Manager can run on all opened trades, or all trades associated to one symbol, or all trades that have been opened with one magic number.
To give an actual scenario, say that you have an expert opening many trades on one symbol, EURJPY. You can open a chart and load Silent Manager, setting the scope to ALL_TRADES_FOR_SYMBOL and EURJPY. On this basis, the expert will start monitoring the total of profit & loss for the whole orders opened on EURJPY. This will secure your profit on the whole set of trades.
Yes. As long as the scopes which are set on each instance of the expert are consistent.
For example, you could run one Silent Manager on EURJPY, and one on EURUSD.
However, it wouldn't make much sense to run one Silent Manager on EURJPY, and one on all trades, as the 2 instances would interfere on the same orders.
For example, you could run one Silent Manager on EURJPY, and one on EURUSD.
However, it wouldn't make much sense to run one Silent Manager on EURJPY, and one on all trades, as the 2 instances would interfere on the same orders.
Silent Officer and Silent Tracker are both tools that are designed to accompany a trading plan, assisting and automating risk management. They integrate to the MT platform by means of an MQL implementation and compiled object, therefore executing the programme requires MT up and running.
The little Close All tool isn't designed to run in the background for obvious reasons.
The indicators need an MT chart opened for obvious reasons as well.
The little Close All tool isn't designed to run in the background for obvious reasons.
The indicators need an MT chart opened for obvious reasons as well.
Yes definitely. The MACD indicator for example will well-integrate into any MQL expert that would need a proper MACD calculation.
Briefly stated, Silent Tracker runs "in the background" while Silent Officer runs "on a chart".
To clarify this from a concrete trader's explanation, I initially developed the first version of Silent Officer when executing trading plans that targeted day-trading and swing-trading of limited currency pairs plus EU indices. My system used either M55 charts or H1 chart with a M55 close-candle, as the 5-minute advance was giving me a fantastic edge on the upcoming market movement and on entry prices.
Using this tool presented the immense advange to set up a trade very much more quickly & safely, and it also addressed the known problems linked to retail brokerage by adding hidden stops and hidden takes with systems using short-term timeframes such as indices.
Nowadays I use the tool to quickly set up several trades on D1 charts – having a daily 45 min time window to do this due to family requirements – optionally I will use Silent Officer Extended for offline pending orders if I have more time.
Then, in this personal situation, I let Silent Tracker manage hidden stops / takes.
Silent Tracker:
- can be added to a template, along with default settings
- can be configured to apply to all charts of the same symbol, or all charts (all symbols).
- automates trailing stop strategies (or trailing profit strategies), using absolute monetary value or a %. For example, a 50% threshold will make sure any profit already made will never go back to less than 50% of the maximum recorded profit to date.
- will more likely be working while you are busy with other activities.
Silent Officer:
- is a very agile and flexible tool
- is a very good way to find the appropriate size of a new trade
- enforces Risk management while speeding up the setup of a trade: the current structure of the market will dictate the stop level associated to the new trade to create; then by moving the order price line the script will give the number of lots corresponding to the stop. The take-profit level will then reflect the expected profit.
- can be used alongside an expert, the best example being a trade opportunity detection expert.
- can be used for trailing stop strategies as long as the trader follows his rules (i.e. keeps moving the stop level).
To clarify this from a concrete trader's explanation, I initially developed the first version of Silent Officer when executing trading plans that targeted day-trading and swing-trading of limited currency pairs plus EU indices. My system used either M55 charts or H1 chart with a M55 close-candle, as the 5-minute advance was giving me a fantastic edge on the upcoming market movement and on entry prices.
Using this tool presented the immense advange to set up a trade very much more quickly & safely, and it also addressed the known problems linked to retail brokerage by adding hidden stops and hidden takes with systems using short-term timeframes such as indices.
Nowadays I use the tool to quickly set up several trades on D1 charts – having a daily 45 min time window to do this due to family requirements – optionally I will use Silent Officer Extended for offline pending orders if I have more time.
Then, in this personal situation, I let Silent Tracker manage hidden stops / takes.
Silent Tracker:
- can be added to a template, along with default settings
- can be configured to apply to all charts of the same symbol, or all charts (all symbols).
- automates trailing stop strategies (or trailing profit strategies), using absolute monetary value or a %. For example, a 50% threshold will make sure any profit already made will never go back to less than 50% of the maximum recorded profit to date.
- will more likely be working while you are busy with other activities.
Silent Officer:
- is a very agile and flexible tool
- is a very good way to find the appropriate size of a new trade
- enforces Risk management while speeding up the setup of a trade: the current structure of the market will dictate the stop level associated to the new trade to create; then by moving the order price line the script will give the number of lots corresponding to the stop. The take-profit level will then reflect the expected profit.
- can be used alongside an expert, the best example being a trade opportunity detection expert.
- can be used for trailing stop strategies as long as the trader follows his rules (i.e. keeps moving the stop level).
Yes indeed. You would obviously need to pay attention to the settings of the expert to what you do with the script on a chart. For example, you will want to be sure that the stop loss level configured in Silent Tracker isn't "smaller" that the stop loss level that you are using with Silent Officer on a chart.
You can use one of them (see above), or even both (see below).
Your trading style, which is reflected in your trading plan, would dictate the preferred way to manage hidden orders.
Your trading style, which is reflected in your trading plan, would dictate the preferred way to manage hidden orders.
In MT4, experts can be loaded to a chart - the settings can also be saved as part of a template. The script can be loaded on top of a chart that is running an expert.
One common setup would be to be running a chart that runs an EA which detects entry opportunities. When the trader receives the opportunity signal (message box, email, text message, message to MT App etc), he can load Silent Officer to:
- check the trade should be taken
- accelerate the trade setup (calculate the ideal size)
- create a hidden pending order (Extended version)
- create a hidden stop-loss and/or a hidden take-profit (Standard/Extended).
One common setup would be to be running a chart that runs an EA which detects entry opportunities. When the trader receives the opportunity signal (message box, email, text message, message to MT App etc), he can load Silent Officer to:
- check the trade should be taken
- accelerate the trade setup (calculate the ideal size)
- create a hidden pending order (Extended version)
- create a hidden stop-loss and/or a hidden take-profit (Standard/Extended).
Both tools would work if they are running in strategy tester, as files are directed to a controlled sandbox. In that situation, files will appear in Tester\Files instead of MQL\Files.
Strategy tester works on history (see the following question as well). The tools will of course work when the testing of a system is a proper "paper trading" on a demo account . I would certainly encourage anyone to opt for this, as it will work on real market data and records orders history. Demo accounts that offer a flexibility in terms of account setup (leverage, spread/commission, available margin etc) are the best for this. This is where a system proves itself.
Strategy tester works on history (see the following question as well). The tools will of course work when the testing of a system is a proper "paper trading" on a demo account . I would certainly encourage anyone to opt for this, as it will work on real market data and records orders history. Demo accounts that offer a flexibility in terms of account setup (leverage, spread/commission, available margin etc) are the best for this. This is where a system proves itself.
The strategy tester of MT4 is a very good tool. You will already know that it works by retrieving historic data for a given instrument, on which you can test how an Expert Advisor behaves.
The false message that is widely spred over the internet is the capacity of that tool to demonstrate a trading system. This isn't true and therefore cannot test a trading plan.
The strategy tester gives a confidence that an Expert Advisor is working as expected, and secondly the analysis of the outcome shows whether the embedded strategy looks finely implemented.
At this point, this is where "paper trading" comes into the picture and should be the test of a trading system and should help refining a plan. "Paper trading" in MT4 is easier than 20 years ago, since demo accounts give the opportunity to run the EA and test a trading plan.
The false message that is widely spred over the internet is the capacity of that tool to demonstrate a trading system. This isn't true and therefore cannot test a trading plan.
The strategy tester gives a confidence that an Expert Advisor is working as expected, and secondly the analysis of the outcome shows whether the embedded strategy looks finely implemented.
At this point, this is where "paper trading" comes into the picture and should be the test of a trading system and should help refining a plan. "Paper trading" in MT4 is easier than 20 years ago, since demo accounts give the opportunity to run the EA and test a trading plan.
